Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I thank Senators Scahill, Crowe and Ryan for their valuable contributions. It is great for me to be here in the Seanad to discuss our departmental work across government but also to outline how we can continue to support and build resilience within our SMEs and retail sector. I appreciate the valuable contributions and the matters raised.

Our Department plays a crucial role along with other Government agencies in supporting our SMEs, our retail sector and local trade enterprises. As many have said, they are the backbone of our urban and rural economy and account for over 69% of all employment throughout the country. The programme for Government is clear. It is focused on being pro-enterprise and pro-business, and we have certainly provided a wide-ranging level of supports for small businesses through targeted initiatives and also by ensuring we can foster growth, innovation and resilience.

I spoke earlier in regard to some of the key areas within our Department that are central to this. Senator Scahill talked about the importance of the national enterprise hub. As stated, that has provided huge assistance with over 7,500 queries. It provides support in one focal area, a one-stop shop to more than 250 Government supports, including grants, loans and training. That is ably assisted by advisers, on-call assistants, live chat and agencies that are supported by Enterprise Ireland through our local enterprise offices. That was referenced by many Senators here. It provides a real starting point and a focal point with a local reach. That is vitally important because we all know the head of economic development within our local authorities. We all know the advisers and expertise who have that reach within our towns and villages and provide that assistance if businesses want to expand or to engage in a digital transformation or look at sustainability projects

. We will get into more detail in regard to energy efficiencies and how we can drive down the cost of doing business for many of these businesses who do not have the bandwidth within their businesses to have a HR function, where many decisions are made around the kitchen table. It is our role and that of the LEOs and the national enterprise hub to provide support, consultation and advice.

Looking at specific schemes we have implemented, last year record supports of more than €400 million were provided by means of the power-up and ICOB grants.At a time when inflation was riding high, the cost of doing business was increased and we got direct supports into businesses to support their cash flow but also to help them on their sustainability journey. The fact we have established the small business unit within our Department is a clear demonstration that we want to provide additional focus to small businesses and ensure the voices of these businesses are heard across government in policy and regulation.

We have set up the cost of business advisory forum. That is very focused on tackling costs head-on. We will have co-ordinated action and targeted relief. Across this forum we have representative bodies and organisations from sectors such as agriculture, retail, advanced manufacturing and agri-tech. They are all present and it is an open invitation for our small businesses to engage with regulators and key agencies. Various themes have been discussed within the cost of business advisory forum. Senator Nicole Ryan talked about insurance. That is a key area of focus, in terms of how we can drive down the cost of insurance for businesses. The Minister of State, Deputy Troy, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, are very focused, along with the Department of enterprise, through the action plan on insurance reform to implement significant reductions in the cost of insurance. Legal costs are also a barrier for many businesses. We must look at the cost of utilities such as water and energy, and even the challenges around planning and compliance. It is very focused across various themes. Three meetings have occurred so far. It is chaired independently by Kevin Foley, an experienced chair who spent many years working on dispute resolution at the Labour Court. We are very focused on ensuring we can target measures from the grassroots up, and that the policy from the top down is effective.

The SME test which was previously raised here is a key focus for me and the Minister, Deputy Burke, because we understand many businesses have been on the receiving end of policy or legislation that may have been introduced but that has had unintended consequences and may have disproportionately affected specific sectors. We want to avoid not having that visibility within Government and across different agencies. The SME test has been an important position for the Government to take. It will certainly ensure any proposed legislation going forward is assessed on the basis of whether its implementation or costs will be prohibitive for the business itself. We have had many cases that have been impacted to date. I am sure they have been raised here. We want to make that process a bit better.

Around simplification, people talk about ensuring our grant application forms are lighter and faster for a lot of businesses. We have made a serious effort to look at how we can streamline the local enterprise office grant system. People talked about the grow digital scheme and the energy efficiency scheme. We have reduced the number of questions on each of those application forms by over 10%. That is a very important exercise to make things a lot quicker. There is also the fact that applicants do not have to provide duplication of their information for subsequent applications.

We are continuing to evolve and expand the National Enterprise Hub to incorporate more supports and more assistance. Many Senators look at other key agencies like Fáilte Ireland, which supports our hospitality and tourism sector. It has its own independent business support hub. We want that to have a reach for small businesses and those that qualify. We are actively engaging with the local enterprise offices and Fáilte Ireland to explore opportunities for greater alignment to support small businesses and micro-tourism businesses in order that we have a collaborative approach whereby both are intertwined and duplication is reduced.

Energy efficiency grants were mentioned in the context of the Green for Businesses initiative. We want greater alignment with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, grants. The SEAI does a lot of work in that regard. We have initiated work in that regard and it will continue.

This is about building capacity within our local enterprise network and ensuring that services meet the needs of our clients. We want to ensure local enterprise offices are proactive in engaging with businesses and it is not the case that businesses always have to make the first reach. My local enterprise office in Mayo has a Mayo ideas week. It is an opportunity over a two-week period for businesses to come, listen, engage and network. That peer-to-peer learning is very important also. Businesses can learn from others on how to access different schemes and different grants to support their business, but also to build resilience. It might be energy efficiency or digital transformation. We want to give that capability to local enterprise offices in doing that, as well as working with the Enterprise Ireland LEO centre of excellence. I will be engaging with the new CEO, Jenny Melia, with regard to my ideas on how we can build even greater capacity around digital transformation and energy efficiency.

I want to focus on the important strategy around accelerating the uptake of digital technology. Senator Crowe talked about the grow digital voucher scheme and how important that has been. The previous version of that was the trading online voucher scheme. Many of these platforms now need visibility in the online space to compete with many other retailers who do not have that footfall in their high streets or local villages and shops. Key to that is ensuring the adoption of AI, but also ensuring we can build resilience in our retail sector for indigenous Irish businesses that want a platform and want to have customers in all parts of the world - in Europe, America and Asia. We are very cognisant of that. I am engaging with Department officials on how we can expand these types of vouchers for these types of SMEs that have ambition to grow and to scale.

Regarding the action plan on competitiveness, we talked previously about commitments from the Government around measures to support employees. We have certainly made significant strides to protect workers. We have honoured any pay increases through the Low Pay Commission and any of its recommendations. We have seen workers being protected through the introduction of statutory sick leave, and we now have the auto-enrolment pensions. A lot of work has been done in the last number of years to protect workers and we will continue to do that while ensuring we strike the right balance with businesses that may be feeling challenges around costs because every additional measure we implement has a cost. The action plan on competitiveness and productivity has been central to that, with focused short- and long-term measures. We will continue to examine issues around regulatory burden, planning infrastructure delivery, water costs and reporting and compliance.

I again thank everyone for their contributions today. I thank them for being here on a Thursday afternoon and for their commitment to the SME sector and our indigenous Irish enterprises throughout their localities and regions. I hope today was informative in highlighting the areas of work and the steps we are taking to increase the visibility for Irish businesses and ensure they can grow and scale into the future.